The iron is forging while it's hot
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There's a saying in my language (maybe in others also) "The iron is forging while it's hot" (Gvožđe se kuje dok je vruće). This, of course, means that there's right time to do something or to shape some things and after that time it'll be hard or impossible to do the same. There're many examples in the Qur'an, and maybe most obvious is pharaoh's repentance which is not accepted, because he missed the time when his iron was good for forging.
But, I wanna talk about some things in 57th surah called The Iron (el-Hadeed). There're many "befores" and "afters" in this surah.
Surah starts with Allah's characteristics 1st aayet is about His tesbeeH, 2nd about His mulk and 3rd is about His names el-Ewwel, el-Aakhir, eZ-Zaahir and el-BaaTin; then it was said that He knows about every thing, where "thing" is a part of reality (Haqq), not something unreal. Talk about Him continues to 6th aayet.
Then we were ordered two things 1) to believe in Him and his resool, and 2) to forward from that in which He made us temporary khaleefas (His representatives). Even forwarding can be about wealth, since His resool is mentioned and belief in him, I understand that this is about forwarding our understanding of His risala (message), since He made us to represent Him temporarily (participle form X is used, which can describe a temporary state of something). This is the first indication of "hot iron", when we're blessed to be made khaleefas.
Call to these two ordered things is explained and then in 10th aayet it was said that those who forwarded before el-fetH (the Resolution) and fought are on higher degree then those who forwarded after and fought. This is because the iron was hotter before and better to forge, because forwarding could have an impact on more people. The Resolution is a solution of a problem Resoolullah had with his people; it can mean victory in a war, but more likely it's his hijra. Fighting is fighting resistance of accepting Allah and His message, in discussing or even physically.
Next we have an example of the Afterlife. Several times word "yewme" is mentioned, which is understood as "(to)day", but since this word is in accusative it describes some natural, expected, obvious situation and condition. People here are nameless and only their states (haal) are mentioned. We can see male and female believers and male and female munaafiqs. Ironically, word munaafiq is from the same root as verbs used for forwarding. This is because munaafiq is form III which describes forwarding from multiple sources, and this describes people who're using many sources to get what they want (hypocrites are just one sort of them). These people will tell anything, from any source, just to get some benefit for them. We can see in their conversations with believers that they're trying to get of their light. But their iron is too cold, they cannot shape anything of iron they got.
In 15th aayet we can see that even munaafiqoon were with mu'minoon and they thought they're believers, they're not believers because their deeds are saying so. It's not enough to say "I believe" and even to think so, if our deeds tell different.
16th aayet is saying that THE TIME IS NOW, now our iron is hot and ready to forge it, otherwise we could be like those given Kitab before who were waited and their hearts hardened, as our iron soon will not be soft. Then we were said that Allah is making dead land alive and He already explained TO US aayaat that we can use intellect. This is why we should be His temporary representatives and forward our understanding to others to whom His words and explanations haven't come yet.
Even muSSaddiq males and females in 18th aayet are understood as those who give charity, this is not correct, since these participles are reflexive and they describe people truthful about themselves, ie. those who're saying and doing truth about what they can forward. Their actions of truth about themselves will tell how they're truthful as believers in Allah and His resool, as munaafiqoon were shown by their deeds.
Aayet 21 is telling more about forging how iron, by racing towards His magfiret and jennet. If we're not running the race will finish and we'll loose our chance to win some reward.
Aayet 25 is where the Iron is mentioned. First, Allah told us that He was sending His rusul with explanations and Kitaab and Meezaan (to measure). AND He sent the Iron. The Iron is the Qur'an, which is His resool and Kitaab with explanations and Meezaan, and all we need to be fully guided.
We got the Iron to forge while it's hot, and we can shape ourselves and our world by it.